Apparatus for cracking hydrocarbons



F. E. WELLMAN Original Filed April 2ll APPARATUS FOR CRACKING HYDROCARBONS Sgm@ D Nw w m J Y M. .QQ SEN h Q SIVIT o y S ,y /dv April 20 1926.

Patented Apr. 20, 1925.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

FRANK E. WELLMAN, OF KANSAS CITY, KANSAS, ASSIGNOR TO THE KANSAS CITY GASOLINE COMPANY, OF KANSAS CITY, KANSAS, A CORPORATION 0F KANSAS.

APARATUS FOR CRACKING HYDROCARBONS.

Application filed April 21,'1920, Serial No. 375,514. RenewedFebruary 12, 1926.

To all whom, t may concern:

Be it known that I, FRANK E. VVELLMAN, a citizen of the United States, residing at Kansas City, in the county of Wyandotte and State of'Kansas, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Apparatus for Cracking Hydrocarbons,'of which the following is a specification, reference being had therein to the accompanying drawing.

My invention relatesto the cracking of hydrocarbons and is an improvement on that set forth in my prior copendingapplication executed of even date herewith, tiled April 21, 1920, Serial Number 375,513. In my said companion application I have described and claimed a system of cracking tubes and settling tubes of larger capacity than the cracking tubes with a pump for maintaining circulation, whereby carbon may settlev out in the settling tubes and the body of hydrocarbon so clarified may be returned to the 'cracking tubes lfor recracking. In the present caSe,'I illustrate and describe means -for dispensing with the settling tubes, de-

pending upon tli'e rapid circulation entirely to keep the cracking tubes free from carbon.

By paying careful attention to certain vde-v tailsof construction which will be described hereinafter, I have discovered that this can be done, and the apparatus correspondingly simplified. Each of these structures, how'- ever, has certain features that render it useful for its own purpose, hence I have chosen to claim the same in two separate applications.

My invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawing in which the figure is a sectional view of a furnace containing cracking tubes, with external appliances necessary for' the. operation.

Referring to the drawing, and in order to render comparison with the previous case easier, I have used herein the same reference numerals as in said/companion case. 7 and 8 are twin cracking tubes arranged with an inclination as shown in the drawing and which of course can be multiplied into a battery .of cou les unnecessary to be shown herein. 2 is t e pump having a discharge pipe 3 leading to the feed manifold 4 and distributing pipes 5' arranged with an in` clinationfasshownin the drawing, from which the oil is pumped to the cracking tubes 7 and 8, thence passes into a header 9 (lor if only one pair of tubes is employed, c irect), thence to the pump. `The inlet pipe for fresh oil is indicated at 10 on the drawing, and the blow-out pipev for carbon indicated at 11. A steam scouring pipe ma be used, as indicated at 19, with draw-oV or vapor line 17 and pressure gauge line 18, the vapor line going to the usual condensing system and emerging fromv a fractionator 16 as in my companion application.

In operating this improved system, I charge the tubes with oil to about one-half their. capacity, using preheatedv oil, and by means of the pump keep the oil constantly circulating. An important feature 'of the improvement is to have the distributing pipes large enoughso that they will not q'ulckly fill up -with the loose circulating particles of carbon, and the pump of sufficiently 'large capacity to insure the distributing pipe orpipes being fully supplied It may be added that I charge the tubes 7 and 8 with one-half the cubical contents. The whole is then brought up to a pressure of 300 lbs. by heating with all outlet valves closed, .fifty per cent ofthe cubical Acontents is drawn ofias vapor and the remainder is quickly blown out. The operation is then repeated.` This epitomizes the operation, only, and it is not to be construed as a limitation.

What I claim is In a system of the type described the combination of cracking tubes, connected with aV circulating pump having a discharge pipe, leading to a feed manifold fromwhich distributing pipes are lcd to the cracking tubes,

the pump having a capacity greater than the capacity of said distributing pipes, together with a blow-out for carbon from a low point inthe system on the intake side of the pump, and an inlet feed connection for fresh oil on the delivery side of the pump, said distributing pipes and cracking tubes being arranged with a downward inclination in the direction of forced circulation and .connected to pass the entire mobile contents of the tubes directly to the pump or blowout.

' In testimony whereof I affix my si FRANK E. WELL ature. 

